Why do projects fail or succeed?

Dec. 16, 2014 - PRLog -- Dallas, London, Sydney – PM World has announced the publication of a ground breaking new series of articles in the monthly PM World Journal (PMWJ) on the topic of “project successes and failures” by project management pioneer Alan Stretton.  To read this first article, click here (http://pmworldjournal.net/article/series-project-successes-failures-deficiencies-data-project-successes-failures/).

With so many project management professional organizations, standards, books, courses and other resources, it seems shocking that projects continue to fail at such a high rate. In a ground breaking new series of articles launched in the December PMWJ and continuing over the next five months, Alan Stretton, PhD (hon), Fellow AIPM, will clarify important issues, establish a framework for understanding the current situation and addressing shortfalls, and provide a model for helping improve overall performance.

From the introduction to the first article by Dr. Stretton: “Many people in the project management community are concerned about what has been happening in practice with project performance – e.g. about the current position with project successes and failures; whether project performance has actually been improving; and the extent to which our efforts over many decades have helped, or failed to, improve such performance. This is the first article of a series, which is initially concerned with the current position with project successes and failures, and later with approaches to increasing project success levels.”

In the article, Alan discusses previous surveys by the Standish Group (software projects) and IPA (major projects), project success criteria (and lack thereof), and lack of research data on project success and failure.  He raises some key questions such as “success for whom?” and “at what level?”  The first article takes a close look at the availability of data on project successes and failures, setting the stage for identifying and assessing some important issues.

According to David Pells, PMWJ Management Editor, “Alan is addressing such an important topic in his new series, in terms of both clarifying the issues and outlining some potential solutions.  Clearly there is a need for more research and more data on project success and failure.  This series however moves the ball forward, provides a solid basis for that future research as well as real progress in solving this global dilemma. We are very happy to publish his ground breaking series in the journal.”

To read this first article, click here (http://pmworldjournal.net/article/series-project-successe...).

The PM World Journal (PMWJ) is a global resource for sharing knowledge related to portfolio, program and project management (P/PM).  The PMWJ is produced and maintained by PM World which also maintains the PM World Library (PMWL), a global resource for continuous learning in programme and project management.  To see the latest edition of the PMWJ, go to www.pmworldjournal.net.  To learn more, visit www.pmworldlibrary.net.